«Sorrow, Like River Waters...»: Text and Translation
Yemelyanov Vladimir V.
Several decades ago I.M. Diakonoff published a Mesopotamian ritual text in translation made much earlier by V.K. Shileiko and beginning with words «Sorrow as river waters...». Neither the publisher nor readers of the text could identify the Mesopotamian original of this Shileiko' translation. The author's research in Shileiko's archive has proved that this original was one of the rituals of the bit rimki series (Bit rimki III 60-85) last edited by R. Borger in 1967 (JCS 21). The author gives a new, updated and commented Russian translation of the text in question (note that the first line is to be translated in fact as «(demon) asakku, like a flood...»). Some remarks on the principles of Shileiko' poetical translation of Mesopotamian texts are added.